


One Ring

by Aevintyr



Series: Invincible [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), The Nine Realms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 02:22:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5357336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aevintyr/pseuds/Aevintyr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just another day at the interrealm office for Tony and Loki. An interlude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Ring

**Author's Note:**

> This an interlude while I work on the plot-heavier sequel(s) of Invincible (next one should be done soon). It belongs into the Invincible ‘verse, as it were, and includes the odd references to the first part, but it can stand on its own, and it’s definitely lighter in mood than the rest. 
> 
> I don’t own Marvel, I’m not American, you know the drill.

The building’s defense system was shooting arrows at Tony before he’d even put a foot on the ground.

“Oh, fuck off.”

He rolled over, took out the system with a blast from his portable repulsor and finally came to stand on his feet. He missed a low hanging branch by a mere inch. That would’ve been some entrance.

“What, is that all you got?” No one shot at him. “I’ll take that as a pathetic yes.”

Where had the guards gone? The residence of Lindir had to be better protected than that. Which could only mean one thing … Tony was too late.

His suspicion strengthened when he approached the door, plain silver with a few woven ornaments in each corner. Alfheim, eh? But it stood slightly ajar. Behind, the corridor was dark. Low moans could be heard. Yep, definitely too late.

Tony pushed the door open, repulsor extended. Nine guards were lying on the floor, incapacitated. Two of them were dead. Tony’s headset indicated fatal stab wounds to the neck. Small blade. Dagger. Wounds dark blue around the edges. Jötun steel. _Fuck_.

He forced himself to look ahead, down the corridor. It seemed endless. A preliminary scan indicated one life-form cowering in the third room on the right, and a fair few life-forms fighting in the grand hall ten rooms down the left.

With renewed purpose, Tony started to make his way down the corridor. When one of the guards grabbed at his ankle, he kicked him back into unconsciousness.

This door was shut, but posed no obstacle to a well-aimed repulsor blast. Behind was a large, white room dominated by a four-poster bed with silver hangings. To the left, an inconspicuous wardrobe. The ceiling was made of glass, revealing trees swaying softly in the wind above. Not bad. As for the life-form …

“Hey Lindir,” Tony called out to the elf hiding in one corner of the room. “If you’re going to splash the cash on security, you should at least do it properly. Those guards, I’d say two out of ten, tops.”

“Will you take it away?” Lindir asked, his voice quivering.

“Take it _back_ , you mean. You stole it from Finn, in case you’ve already forgotten. Did no one ever tell you that stealing from dwarves is a bad idea? I mean, everyone knows that. Or wait, maybe not, since Finn himself stole it from Ygnvi and anyway …” Behind Tony, the wardrobe rumbled, like tiny animals bouncing and trying to get out. “Is that what I think it is?”

Lindir nodded.

“Hey, it’s your lucky day, I won’t have to set destroy your airy ideas about interior design after all. As for you …”

Lindir jumped to his feet and ran for the door. Finally, something was going right.

Tony turned to the wardrobe, a white piece with a few subtle silver ornaments. They did have style on Alfheim. The hinges seemed close to breaking point, however.

The scanner had just finished sorting through the magic when there were footsteps in the corridor. Tony turned almost in time to avoid being pressed against the wall with a dagger to his throat. Almost. He peered up into furious green eyes. There was blood, too. “Any of this yours?”

Loki huffed. “Of course not.”

“You killed two guards.”

“Three. They proved somewhat … persistent.”

Tony shook his head. “You’re just mad it took you so long. You even left the automated defense grid in place. I’m winning this one, honey.”

“Are you quite certain? I left the automated defense grid because it was not shooting at me. Perhaps it is your stealth mode that requires some work, rather than my hand-to-hand skills.”

Point taken. Not that Tony was about to admit it. “Oh, I’d say your hand-to-hand skills are … satisfactory.”

“Tread carefully.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Where indeed.” Loki leaned closer. With the dagger still against his throat, Tony had no chance to dodge, but then, he didn’t want to. He kissed Loki back, tasting blood and snow.

When Loki retreated, he sheathed the dagger, too. “Where’s Lindir?”

“Long gone. I’m telling you, this one is mine. The package is in there.” Tony pointed at the wardrobe. “Or packages, judging from the readings I was getting before you interrupted me.”

Loki frowned. “So Ygnvi made it work? Show me.”

The wardrobe rumbled again.

“Yeah, I’d say he made it work just fine.” Tony fired a small repulsor blast at the groaning hinges. The door flew off and out of the wardrobe spilled a veritable sea of … golden rings.

“Impressive,” Loki said.

The ring level stopped at about ankle height. Then the entire mass shuddered and even more rings appeared.

“Woah,” Tony said. “No wonder Lindir was so keen to get out of here, those things multiply faster than tribbles.”

Loki laughed. “Is it a bad sign that I understood the reference?”

Tony joined in. “Let’s get to work. Master ring’s got to be in here somewhere, any ideas how to locate it? My scanner hasn’t logged on to the frequency yet.”

“This might yet be a draw.”

“Never.”

They grinned at each other. Game _on_.

Loki said, “I will trace the spell back to its origin. Do me a favor and be quiet for once.”

Tony wouldn’t have needed a reminder for that. Watching Loki work a complex spell never failed to mesmerize him, the specific way Loki’s body went still, he closed his eyes and _breathed_ , and the entire room seemed to _shift_ as it tried to accommodate the power filling up its walls, a soft crackle in the air, a whiff of snow. It shouldn’t be this much of a turn on, but … it kind of was.

Strands of magic pooled around Tony’s legs. He could see them on his headset, but, beyond all his tech, he could _feel_ them. A year of traveling through space, where this raw energy called magic abounded, had left Tony a lot more receptive. Actually, it had left him a lot more of several things, “in love with Loki” right on top of the list. Who would have thought? Not Tony, for sure. When he’d accepted Loki’s offer of hitchhiking around the galaxy, he hadn’t been thinking at all. And now …

“Hah.” The strands came together to lift a single ring up and onto Loki’s outstretched palm. “This should be it. Double-check?”

He offered the ring to Tony. Right. Work. They were here to work. So Tony bent down, grabbed a random ring out of the still-multiplying mass and put it onto Loki’s palm as well. The contact with cold skin tingled in his fingertips. _Work_ , he reminded himself, and ran a scan on the two rings.

“Okay, yeah. The magical signatures are different,” he concluded. “One ring to bring them all, eh? There’s even something carved onto it in tiny, tiny writing, hang on …”

He drew the magnification out of his headset for Loki’s benefit. Written in runes, that Tony could tell, but what …

Loki chuckled. “It says, Freyja of Vanaheim.”

“Yeah, because clearly the one thing Freyja needs is more gold.” Tony had to laugh, too. “Okay, this is all really cute, but how do we stop this thing from literally drowning us in gold?” The ring level was at their knees, now.

“It is indestructible,” Loki said.

“Thought as much. Need to block the magic, then, at least until we get it back to Ygnvi. Nidavellir magic, worked into the most magical metal that ever magicked. No big deal.” While he’d been talking, Tony’s scanner had isolated the unique signature of the master ring. “Well, I can’t make our gold bath disappear, but if I apply a force field that reverses …”

The master ring on Loki’s hand shuddered once more, then stilled. They waited. Nothing happened. No more reduplications.

Tony grinned. “I win. I totally win.”

“Very well.” Loki reached for Tony’s right hand, put the master ring into it and folded his fingers over the cool metal. “You win.” With a smile, Loki brought the hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles.

A shiver ran down Tony’s spine. “Right. Should we, erm, should we keep the rest of these?”

Loki let go of his hand. “What did we say about cursed materials?”

“Uh… they’re not _technically_ cursed, right? What about one of our stasis chambers? The ones buried deep in Jötunheim?”

“Where, let me guess, _no one_ will _ever_ find them?”

“Point taken. But still, such a shame, giving all of that away … Maybe if I can take another look at what else this multiplication might work on …”

“You are incorrigible.” Loki smiled.

“Yeah, uh, you would know.”

“I do indeed.” Loki leaned in and nuzzled Tony’s jaw. “What do you want?”

 _You_ , Tony thought. He cast a look around. They were still standing knee-deep in gold, one or more of the guards could regain consciousness and waltz in here, Ygnvi was expecting them back urgently … _Right here, right now_.

“Get on your knees.”

With a last kiss to Tony’s jaw, Loki complied, as much as was possible with all those rings. Couldn’t be a comfortable position. Tony pocketed the master ring with a smirk.

“Well?” he asked.

Loki didn’t need to be told again. Tony gasped as hot lips closed around his cock. With all the adrenaline in play, this was not going to take long … His hands dug into Loki’s hair, he forced his cock deeper and Loki, as ever, just took it all. Tony shuddered as Loki swallowed around him, sucked in all the right places …

Loki was trying to speed things along, no doubt an effort to regain some initiative. Tony might have minded, if it didn’t feel so damn good. He also didn’t think it necessary to inform Loki of his building orgasm. Loki would know, anyway. Loki would just — yes. Loki just kept swallowing.

It took Tony a moment to regain his bearings, let go of Loki’s hair, straighten up. Loki was sitting back, waiting, watching. Three feet between them. It felt like more. The need to touch Loki burned on Tony’s skin.

He cleared his throat. “Get up.”

In an entirely graceless motion, Loki staggered to his feet. Rings went flying everywhere.

Tony hauled Loki closer and kissed him, he wanted those lips, he wanted that bitter taste on his tongue, he wanted …

“Hm.” His thigh pressed against Loki’s erection. “Think I can make you come like that?”

Loki moaned and kissed him again.

“We really should be getting this ring back to Ygnvi, you know.”

“Tony …”

He wound out of the embrace. With satisfaction, he noted it made Loki stumble. “What’s that?”

“Tony. _Please_.”

“Shut up.”

Loki did. His cheeks were flushed. Tony’s eyes dropped to Loki’s cock, straining against the leather.

“Don’t move.”

Tony placed his hand against Loki’s cock, through the layers of leather and fabric, just resting there. He could feel Loki tremble with the effort to resist pushing against the caress.

Tony loved this, loved Loki like this, gasping, at his mercy. And he wasn’t done. So he withdrew his hand, undid armor and laces with quick fingers, and closed them around Loki’s cock.

Loki’s entire body curved against him in a drawn-out moan.

“I said, don’t move.” He felt Loki flinch. Two wins in one day. Tony smiled. That would be some night. But for now … “Luckily for you, I’m feeling generous. Must be all that gold.”

Tony moved his hand, not too easy in that tight leather, but then he’d had some practice. From the way Loki’s breathing hitched, Tony could tell he was close. Time to be generous, then. Tony accelerated his movements, harder, rougher, the way Loki liked. He jerked Loki through his orgasm, too, until he slumped against Tony.

They were both breathing hard. Definitely a good day at the office. Once they’d got rid of that pesky ring, maybe they could take a few days off and …

Against his side, Loki tensed. “Someone is here.”

Tony peered at the open door. No movement visible on the corridor. “One of the guards?”

“No, someone …” Loki frowned. “They’re gone now.”

“What, like teleported away? A sorcerer with a voyeuristic streak? I thought that was just you.”

It made Loki laugh, although he straightened up and readjusted his trousers. Tony did the same. “Perhaps,” Loki said. “Perhaps it was merely a shift in the dimensions, brought on by the ring’s tampering.”

Yeah, and maybe not. But then again, who cared. “Let’s get rid of the damn thing, then.”

“Yes.” Loki took a few breaths to compose himself, then vanished the remaining ring sea, hopefully to a stasis chamber. “Let’s go.”

With that, they shifted dimensions themselves, Alfheim white and green replaced with Nidavellir black, the dark stones of Ygnvi’s forges deep beneath the mountain.

“What took you so long?” Ygnvi welcomed them.

“Attention to detail.” Tony flicked the ring over. Startled, Ygnvi only just managed to catch it.

“Clearly not enough detail,” he said. “The incantation. Finn still has a copy. It must not fall into the wrong hands.”

“Why is it,” Tony asked, “that every time there’s talk of wrong hands, everyone always assumes their own are the _right_ hands?” When Ygnvi opened his mouth, he went on, “Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical. You do understand rhetorical, right? And please, don’t play the ‘I’m paying you negligibly little of my infinite gold for this shit’ card. Do we look like we’re in this for the money?”

“Now,” Loki said, “if you were to ask us to break into Finn’s highest security vault because that would be a mightily difficult task …”

“… that most people wouldn’t even attempt because it borders on the insane …” Tony continued.

“… then,” Loki said, “we might just consider it.”

Ygnvi shook his head at them. “I care not for the phrasing, as long as you retrieve the incantation.”

“You may wish to rethink that strategy, considering how you lost the ring in the first place.” Loki grinned at Ygnvi’s flinch. “I expect my daggers will be finished by the time we return?”

“Whatever you say.” Ygnvi was already walking away.

“Okay,” Tony said, to Loki. “Finn’s vault? Deep under his mountain on Nidavellir? Walk in the park, right?”

Loki laughed. “Quite. Shall we?”

 

###


End file.
